A World Apart

I was inspired to write this after dwelling on a sort of epiphany I had at work roughly a week ago. It is my idea regarding human nature

One aspect of human nature, that I have come to notice, is that we all exist in our tiny separate worlds. My first realization of this came as I was cashiering at work. I stood there at my register, scanning food mindlessly, when I glanced at my elderly bagger. She was methodically bagging the food coming down the belt, paying no mind to me, or the customer who tapped away at her phone. The customer. I then shifted my gaze to the customer, a blond woman, around my mother’s age. She paid no attention to me, the teenage cashier, nor the elderly frail bagger standing but a few feet away from her. This customer was in her own world, not paying attention to the world of the other people around her. This realization drew me to larger conclusions.

We all essentially exist in our own worlds. In this particular instance, the bagger was in her own world, the customer hers, and myself my own. In our own worlds, we are safe, and we remain isolated within the situations of our own worlds. In my world, not remembering an obscure produce code would have been a pressing matter, but solely in my own world. The bagger may have run out of bags, yet this is another isolated problem in her own world. Similarly, the customer, immersed in her text messages, was solely concerned with what was occurring in her own world.

From all of this then, I have come to realize that humans do not live unless they choose to allow another into their world, or another person intrudes into their world. This idea may seem straightforward, but it isn’t something that all humans have mastered believe it or not. Many humans make an unconscious decision to live in their world, and solely their world.

Take for example my sister. Out with her boyfriend last night, she was to be picked up some time after I got out of work. My father picked her up nearby the boy’s house, but she took a while to leave his house and get to the car, which annoyed my father. He decided to yell at my sister, which in turn made my sister incredibly angry at my father, finding no fault in her own actions. Had the two been even slightly immersed in the worlds of each other, and not simply their own, the situation would have had a different outcome. My sister, in her world, was only concerned with spending the maximum amount of time possible with her boyfriend, and did not want to be picked up at all, delaying her exit from his house. She had no care for my father, or for how tired he happened to be. My father however, had no care for my sister in this particular situation either. Hear me out. In my father’s world, it was close to 11 at night, and he was tired from working all day. My father merely wanted to bring my sister home as was his duty, with no care for my sister’s feelings regarding her boyfriend or the limited time they spend together.

Had my sister been slightly in my father’s world, she would have remembered that he had worked all day, and been slightly sympathetic for how tired he was. In a perfect world, she would have been on time coming home. My father, if he had taken into consideration how little my sister and her boyfriend see one another, he may have been more patient in waiting for my sister, and would not have been angry when she was late. All of this seems simple, but we humans make our lives more complicated than they have to be. It is human nature to solely be immersed in our own world, and completely forget about the simultaneous lives occurring around us. Human nature placed me in my own world that same night, as I was out wandering the streets with a friend while all of this occurred, as I have done numerous nights this summer. Human nature led me to only be concerned with my male friend and I, and not the whereabouts of my sister and father.

So I rambled for a while, but what does all of this mean? Well here’s my final thought that has come out of this concept. Humans inherently live in their own worlds, because it is safe and they do not leave their comfort zone. To leave ones own world removes the safety of the life they know, and they are exploring uncharted territory. More importantly however, is when one chooses to allow another to be in their own world. This is mainly illustrated in friendships and romantic relationships. One individual chooses to let another person be a part of their world, and to see all there is in the private world of another. Essentially, we choose to expose our vulnerabilities because we trust this other person. This, this one concept of trust is what causes the intense desire to keep to ones own world. We are naturally afraid of being scoffed at or have our trust broken by other humans. No one is perfect, and sometimes humans break one another’s trust. These instances create the walls and barriers that we mentally put up. They are not walls and barriers however, they are merely doors that shut tightly, keeping out all other humans out of our worlds; until the day when they once again choose to open the door, and allow another into their world.

This concept, of living within another’s world, can both be the downfall of humans, as I illustrated above, or the key to living life fully. I have been able to live my life more fully once I discovered this concept. This summer has proven that taking part in another’s life can be a wonderful and eye opening experience. I will continue to live my life this way, and now I hope that you will as well.

Subscribe

Get Teen Ink’s 48-page monthly print edition. Written by teens since 1989.